The prior art abounds with hand-operated devices secured to a pole for picking or gathering fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, oranges and tangerines from tree limbs which are too high to reach by a person from ground level. U.S. Pat. Nos. 47,364, 591,113, 640,485, 850,355, 937,797, 1,586,867, 1,968,414, 3,744,227 and 4,835,955 exemplify such prior art devices and constitute the closest prior art known to the present invention. These pole mounted devices for picking fruit from the uppermost limbs of fruit trees by a person located on the ground have not been generally commercialized or accepted due to their usually complex structures including complicated and separate clipper mechanisms for severing the fruit from tree limbs.
The instant invention relates to an easily actuated fruit picker having a minimum number of moving parts mounted preferably on a telescoping pole, for removing fruit from the uppermost limbs of a tree by a person at ground level.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a portable, lightweight, fruit picker which can be easily and conveniently manipulated by a person standing at ground level.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved fruit picker having a container mounted near its upper extremity to catch the fruit when picked from a tree by a person standing on the ground.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a new and improved portable, lightweight, fruit picker which is simple in construction and operation and capable of accommodating a variety of fruits of different sizes with little or no modifications.
Other aspects, objects, and the several advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains from a study of the preferred embodiments as set forth in the following specification and drawings and the appended claims.